


Prom Night

by artiebird



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Prom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 14:49:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19814539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artiebird/pseuds/artiebird
Summary: Ben felt like throwing up. He knew perfectly well that Maggie was out of his league, but he thought that justmaybethey got along well enough during rehearsals—she wasn’t outwardly mean or anything. They didn’t have to go to prom as dates, friends could’ve been good too.But apparently not.set in high school. ben & dwayne go to prom together.





	Prom Night

**Author's Note:**

> i'll tell you how i got here: i am 100% convinced dwayne libbydale is the dark, and the dark said last ep he couldn't take the person he wanted to prom. ben got turned down by maggie for prom, so he didn't get to go with who he wanted either. ben doesn't hate dwayne, unlike basically half of his high school peers. so: ben and dwayne are pals and go to prom. it's solidarity.
> 
> it's supposed to be platonic, but could be read as romantic if you felt like it, maybe? it is implied dwayne has a boyfriend, so do with that what you will. could be poly. i mean, his bf definitely knows about the prom date

Ben felt like throwing up. He knew perfectly well that Maggie was out of his league, but he thought that just _maybe_ they got along well enough during rehearsals—she wasn’t outwardly mean or anything. They didn’t have to go to prom as dates, friends could’ve been good too.

But apparently not. Maggie had no intention of going to prom with the likes of Ben Arnold. He knew she was trying to be nice; she was trying to let him down softly, but he didn’t miss the face she made. She was confused at best—offended at worst. Ben hated that.

“Uh, no thanks.” She replied. She gave him a forced smile. When Ben’s face dropped (as he’s terrible at hiding his emotions) and he started to stutter out a reply, she quietly added “No offence or anything. Sorry, Ben. Hope you find someone to go with.”

Then she walked off.

And Ben took a deep breath and clenched his jaw. He wasn’t stupid—this wasn’t the end of the world or anything, but it sure felt like hell. He still had to act with her during rehearsals three days a week for the rest of the semester. Maybe this was all a bad idea.

It was still the middle of lunch break, so Ben tucked into the washroom to wait it out until classes started again, maybe cool off a bit with some water on his face. His plans were shut down though pretty quickly when the nook in the hallway where the washroom was hidden wasn’t empty, and he was faced with a red-eyed Dwayne Libbydale sitting outside the storage closet with a book in his hands he looked like he was trying far too hard to read.

Ben knew Dwayne better than most of the kids at King Falls High. They weren’t particularly close, but they were both in drama and Dwayne was playing Kenickie in Grease with him, so he got to talk to him a lot more than most of the other students, besides Maggie. They had also been close as kids—Ben remembers playing on the same Little League team, and if he thinks about it, Dwayne might have been there when he found Serendipity too.

Dwayne and he would goof off sometimes during breaks, but they didn’t really interact outside of rehearsals, so Ben wasn’t sure if he should confront the kid who looked like he had just finished crying.

“Hey, Dwayne.” Ben decides, because being kind and having it fail is probably better than not trying. “You okay?”

“Hm?” Dwayne looks up surprised. He didn’t seem prepared to be spoken to. “Oh, hey, Benny. Yeah, I’m good. I’m good… Are you good?”

He probably noticed his own expression mirrored in Ben’s, because Ben kind of felt like garbage still and was fighting off tears of his own. He laughs weakly, running his hand through his fluffy hair.

“Uh, yeah, just asked Maggie to prom and got—I mean, I guess I should’ve assumed. I’ll be fine.”

“Oh, that sucks, man.” Dwayne replies and gestures to the ground beside him. He’s just sitting on the floor of the hallway, but Ben joins him nonetheless. There’s technically a foyer in the school, but plenty of people avoid it since it’s loud and only has enough seats for about half the capacity of the school. Principal Logan will get on their asses if students sit in the stairwells, so random places in the halls it is.

Ben whines and rubs his face with his hands. “She doesn’t even have a date already; she just doesn’t want to go with me.”

“Not to be an ass, but she’s allowed to say no even if she doesn’t have a date.”

Ben isn’t expecting that response and frowns at Dwayne for a moment but lets his head lull with a sigh. “You’re right, but it fuckin’ hurts.”

Dwayne nods. Tears peak in his eyes, but he’s still not saying anything. Ben nudges him in the shoulder, trying to get him to talk.

“Hey, I asked you first. We’re not listening to me whine about Maggie right now.”

That makes him let out a laugh, and he doesn’t really look at Ben. “Actually, it’s sort of the same thing. Weird coincidences, I guess.”

Ben groans. “Seriously dude? And you let me rant about being rejected? Now I feel like an asshole.”

“You’re not, it’s fine. It’s just— we don’t go to the same school and there’s… other stuff—it’s whatever. We can’t go together and it kind of sucks.”

“That does suck. Who’d you ask? You said she’s not from here but if she’s—”

Dwayne’s mouth twitches while Ben talks, like he’s weighing the options before he interrupts Ben, unfathomably softly.

“He.”

“Oh.” Ben says, cutting himself off. It’s all he really has available to say. There’s a part of him that’s a little excited Dwayne trusted him with that, but there’s another part that feels weighed down doubly by the fact Dwayne can’t take this guy to prom. He feels weighed down triple-y for having complained that Maggie turned him down.

When Ben didn't react any further, Dwayne continued. “Uh, yeah. He—His mum found out I asked and she’s—sometimes she’s so supportive, but his prom is on the same night, and his school—you have to register who you’re going with and it has to be boy/girl. It’s less formal here, so we were going to go to mine, but his mum thinks that’s ruining the experience, and—” Dwayne stops himself and breaths. It all seemed to tumble out after he let himself start. “Sorry, Benny. I don’t mean to unload this on you.”

Obviously, Ben had heard that Dwayne was gay before. It was a pretty strong point of gossip at this school, and since they lived in such a small town, it was pretty rampant just in general. The same gossip existed about Ben, though, on again off again, so he knew to take it with a grain of salt.

“It’s fine.” Ben said, a little breathless. Ben was known for crying out of empathy, and since he was already pretty close to tears before, he couldn’t really stop himself now. He scoffs lightly. “At least you got me over my own shit. That sucks, dude. I don’t even know what to say.”

Dwayne smiles again, nervous, but warm and genuine. “Seriously, that means a lot.”

He looks away, then at his book again. It still looks like he isn’t really reading it to Ben, but they sit like that, half paying attention, anyways. For a moment, that is.

“Sorry if this is too—I don’t know. I just thought of it. I’m—I don’t really feel like getting turned down by anyone else I have to act with for the rest of term, and I basically don’t know anyone else, so do you—If you don’t get your thing sorted out with your… boyfriend? This guy. If grad rolls around and you still aren’t able to go with him, do you want to go with me?”

Dwayne frowns at him, but more surprised than anything else. Ben continues.

“I mean, you totally don’t have to, but I kind of want to go anyways and I’m fine going by myself but that just means no one to walk with at the grad celebration and stuff and, like, I only mean as friends or whatever. If I’m overstepping—”

“You’re not, it’s fine. I’d—Actually, that’d be really cool, Ben.” Dwayne grins at him. “Thanks.”

Ben beams. He can feel himself grinning, but he can’t really stop. There’s a part of him that wonders if it’s inappropriate, but he’s contagious and Dwayne huffs the beginnings of excitement when he smiles back. Ben feels warm over that.

\--

Prom was in the evening after the graduation ceremony. Ben was out of his gown as fast as possible in the basement entrance behind the gymnasium, waiting anxiously for Dwayne to parade out. His damn surname had him third alphabetically all afternoon, with only Abilene and Anderson in front of him, and his cap was trying to fall off his head with extreme desperation the whole time.

Now that he was finally out of the stuffy cotton gown that felt ever so slightly too long, he was feeling pretty good. It was technically fitted to him, but just knowing it wasn’t his own clothes made it feel long by nature, not like he’d ever admit that to be part of his own conditioning. Similarly to being out of the gown, Ben couldn’t _wait_ to be further away from the front of the lineup.

“Hey, Benny.”

“It’s Ben.” Ben automatically corrected, but when he turned around and Dwayne behind him, he felt a little bad for being snappy. There was never really any snark in it when Dwayne said it, not like Greg Frickard or Mr. Sebastian from the Radio Station who say it to bug him. Dwayne called him Benny like few people called him that: like someone who’s known him too long to think to stop.

“Right, sorry.” Dwayne didn’t seem to take offence. Ben nodded him toward the lineup and they started moving as Dwayne continued. “Thanks for sticking with me, by the way.”

Ben scoffs. “Thanks for going with _me_ , dude. You know everyone at this school. I’m the one who was guaranteed to be dateless otherwise.”

“Yeah, but not everyone is willing to sacrifice their status as a straight dude to go to prom with sort-of-out gay kid.” Dwayne jokes back, mostly happy-go-lucky as per, but with a layer of something Ben can't identify in his tone.

“Yeah, but, uh, I didn’t really have status as a straight guy before.” He jokes, and then quieter, “Plus, I’m… I don’t know. I’m probably straight. But who knows?”

Dwayne gapes at him for a second, but a smile returns to his face just as fast. “Solidarity, then.” He smirks, gesturing for a fist bump. Ben obliges.

“Sure.”

Then they’re at the front of the line, and they walk down the gymnasium set up for closing remarks. They reach the end, and they strike a pose as the cameras flash. They may be in tuxedos, Ben in a black hand-me-down from his grandfather, Dwayne in a flashy, white, rented ordeal, but they can tell when they get it back a few hours later that it’s definitely the Danny Zuko and Kenickie Murdoch they joke around as in rehearsals. Could anybody else tell? Honestly, neither knew the answer to that.

But prom was fun.

And Maggie Masterson could suck it.

And more importantly, Dwayne’s boyfriend’s mum could suck it.

And Ben could graduate knowing he did have at least one friend in high school.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading!!! <3 i wrote this in like a single afternoon and have Not read it over so hopefully it's alright. i don't personally think it's my best work, but that doesn't mean i shouldn't continue to write and post and get better. comments are super appreciated, if you'd like!


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